Bills Beat Blog

By Joe Buscaglia

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Bills Scouts' Notebook

by Joe Buscaglia,posted Apr 20 2011 3:15PM

In the week leading up to the NFL Draft, the Buffalo Bills give media access to their scouts. Today, we had a chance to talk to Doug Majeski and Brad Forsyth. Majeski covers the Midwest to the East Coast for the team, while Forsyth concentrates on the Rocky Mountain to West regions.

So with that said, I compiled some of the notable names that were talked about in the nearly 20-minute session. Here's some of their thoughts:

Ohio State DE Cameron Heyward
Strong, powerful player. Better run player than he is a pass rusher, but everything about the kid is positive. He's a great kid, he works hard. Has had a really good college career. He's physically what you're looking for as a five-technique defensive end as far as size and strength. He's more of a 3-4 five-technique defensive end than he is a defensive end in a forty front. - Doug Majeski

Illinois DT Corey Liuget
For some reason, I don't know if this guy gets enough credit for being as good as he is. At times during this year, he's probably one of the best Big Ten players there was. He's really athletic, he plays three-technique, he can rush the passer. He plays like a devil versus the run. He's one of those guys when you watch him, you just enjoy watching him play. - Doug Majeski

Nevada QB Colin Kaepernick
Boy, he's an intriguing guy because he's got a lot of athletic ability. Big, lanky guy. Has been extremely productive there in that pistol offense that they use both as a passer and as a runner using his legs. I think he's very deceptive with his legs, because he's a little bit of a long-striding guy that covers a lot of ground. So he doesn't look like he's moving that fast and guys have problems keeping with angles on him and he outruns people. He's got a little bit of a different delivery than your prototypical quarterback. It's a little longer, but he's effective. He's got a strong arm, he can really get the ball out there, make all the throws, extremely smart. The biggest thing is converting from that pistol offense in to a pro-style offense where he's under center every snap. He's definitely smart enough to do it.

If Kaepernick strikes him as someone who wants to be the best:
Oh yeah. He's a great kid. He really loves the game. He wants to be great, you really like that. And he's got a little bit of a chip on his shoulder too because everybody is doubting him for coming out of that type of offense. Can he really translate it to the pro-game, so that's given him a little extra motivation. And yeah, I don't see any problem with him giving it everything he's got.
Is there a chance Kaepernick goes in the first round?
I think there is. All the physical things he has, he's got a high ceiling on him. A lot of upside. So yeah, definitely. Especially a lot of those teams, a lot of times when they're picking later in the first round, they have a little more luxury of they don't have to have that guy play right away. He can sit for a couple of years and learn it, so that makes him very interesting to them. - Brad Forsyth

Nevada DE/OLB Dontay Moch
A defensive end that projects more to an outside backer for us. Extremely gifted athlete in terms of running, jumping. He's very fast. You really see burst and speed on him. He needs to learn how to counter more using his hands and do some different things versus the tackle. You can't just be a speed guy all the time, especially at our level. Guys can figure that out and shut that down pretty easily. But he's another guy that's very intriguing because of the athletic talent that he has. - Brad Forsyth
Nevada TE Virgil Green
I really didn't know that much about him going in to this year. Really came on as a senior. Another guy that's very athletic, can run, catches the ball very well. Probably a little better of a blocker than he got credit for. He's not going to be a run pounder, grind it out type of tight end in terms of the blocking game but he's athletic enough and strong enough that he can hold his own in there and be an effective seal-off and occupy type blocker. - Brad Forsyth

Illinois LB Martez Wilson
He played middle backer for them, but also in nickel played some outside/defensive end. I think depending on your defense or your scheme. Some teams are going to look at him as a middle linebacker some teams will look at him as an outside backer. He's the prototype size of an outside linebacker in a 3-4, but his experience has been at a middle backer at Illinois. - Doug Majeski

Temple DE Muhammad Wilkerson
Physically a great looking kid. He's 6-4 something and 310-pounds, and he's got long arms and played well this year. He's really kind of a power player that's got good feet. Still learning how to do things completely as far as hand use and some things. But he does a lot of good things on tape and he's the prototypical size for a defensive end. - Doug Majeski
Notre Dame TE Kyle Rudolph
Kyle obviously was very limited this year. Even the games he played was limited with the hamstring. For us as scouts you're basically going back to '09 tape and looking at him in a little bit different offense. More of a tight end offense than the spread he played in this year. But certainly has size, has very good hands, catches the ball well and was able to do everything at pro day. So even though he had a serious hamstring injury, he was able to finish his pro day, show everybody he's healthy and show what he does well which is catch the ball. - Doug Majeski

Washington ILB Mason Foster
Extremely instinctive. Fly around guy, really an effort guy that gets to the ball. Made a ton of plays, I mean he's one of the most productive guys that you'll see out west or maybe even anywhere. He gets in on a number of plays. He's not going to test out great, but I think the instincts and the want-to kind of overcome some of those. His steps in terms of getting the right fits, make him very productive. He's a fun guy to watch because of the number of tackles he gets in on every game. - Brad Forsyth

Oregon ILB Casey Matthews
The biggest knock on Casey is that he's not a really big physical linebacker. You talk about a guy that really understands how to play the game, he understand it. He really understands fits. He understands what the offense is trying to do. He really gets a good jump on things. But even in coverage, I don't think he's a great athlete, but he's solid. He just has a good feel and understanding of what they're trying to do and is able to jump underneath on some things and make some plays in coverage that really helps him out. He doesn't test out real well in terms of numbers, and like I said, size wise is not ideal. But he just gets it. He knows how to play the game. -Brad Forsyth

Villanova OT Benjamin Ijalana
The offense they play in is the spread. He's not the ideal height, but he has length -- and what I mean is he's got long arms. He's been a four-year starter. Three years at left [tackle] and one year at right. He's a tackle prospect. Of course a lot of times you can talk about them as guard. But I think he ideally fits a tackle, right or left, because he pass blocks well and he's got length. - Doug Majeski

Boston College LB Mark Herzlich
It's hard because when you go back to watching. He missed all of '09 and came back this year and got better as the season progressed. But you almost have to go back to his sophomore year to really get a good feel for where he was. And he's still very instinctive, he understands the field, angles, what they're doing to him and that was always the best part of his game. Obviously you know I think going through what he had to go through has affected him some physically and I think he's still getting back to where he's explosive and as fast as he one was. - Doug Majeski

Indiana OT James Brewer
He's a giant of a man with good athleticism. When you talk about a spread [offense], you talk about quarterbacks not being able to make all the reads in the pro-style, well he hasn't had the run blocking that we look for. So that's going to be something you're going to have to project a little bit. Certainly athletic enough and big enough and physical enough. But he's a little bit far behind in the traditional run blocking. - Doug Majeski

Wisconsin TE Lance Kendricks
Really had a nice year. For being not the prototype size tight end, really a good blocker. He's a tough kid. Certainly a good athlete, he ran better at his pro day than he did at the Combine which was still good. But when you watch, you really respect how tough of a kid he is the way he blocks. - Doug Majeski